Matching Color-blocked Pullovers: Sewing Machina Oskar

Sewing Machina Oskar

A pattern that Miss Socialite wanted too!

Overview:

Skill Level: ★★★

Sewing Time: 3-4 hrs

Pattern Rating: ★★★★★

I’m not sure how or why this Oskar quarter zip popped up my in my feed but I’m happy it did. The launch teaser was the first post I saw from Sewing Machina and since I needed a quarter zip I quickly followed and grabbed the pattern when it was released. It was great timing because Carmen, founder of Black Sewing Network, asked me to join the homecoming live sew where we sewed a sweatshirt or hoodie in our HBCU or Divine 9 colors.

Pattern:

I love the option for both the high neck with the zip and the crew neck, it also offers a cropped and regular length. The sleeves and hem are finished with elastic which I was unsure about because I thought I preferred a cuff and band, but they turned out great.

Thanks to Miss Socialite for being my photographer

Even tough the round neck is the simpler of the two and would come together very quickly, I knew I wanted to make the zip up. If you’re familiar with installing a simple zipper this is still an easy sew just add a few more pieces to cut and sew plus the interfacing. The most difficult thing was adding elastic to the sleeve hems because I wanted them quite fitted, but here’s a neat trick from Viki Sews that I’ll try next time.

Miss Socialite loves a quarter zip and oversized pullovers in general are her jam so I thought she might like her own version of this and I was right! As soon as I showed her mine, she requested one. Though I wasn’t surprised she liked the pattern, I was shocked she wanted this color combo. Red is not typically in her color palette. She said it looked “vintage” and gave her varsity vibes.

Like I mentioned I was sewing this live with BSN for the homecoming segment so we were charged with using our HBCU or sorority/fraternity colors. I didn’t have any of those colors in the right fabric for a sweatshirt so I headed to Fine Fabrics. I knew I was going to colorblock so I was looking for blue/yellow (gold) to represent my college colors or red and white (or crimson/cream) for my sorority colors. All of these were pretty elusive and, of course, I had waited until the last minute to go shopping. So while the red is pretty close to crimson, my cream is a bit more beige, but apparently it works.

The fun part of color blocking is deciding how to lay out the colors and I used my trusty digital sketches to figure that out. The leftmost version in the image above is the one I first envisioned in my head and I’m so glad that I did my sketch because all I could see was Ironman once it was on my screen. Not what I was going for. I reversed the colors for the next sketch, but it still gave superhero vibes to me…something about the center bodice. The third one wasn’t bad, but I wanted more crimson than “cream” so the fourth image was the winner. Miss Socialite is the same except my back is crimson and hers is cream and that’s simply because I ran out of fabric.

Fabric:

I used mid-weight ponte with some structure for these from Fabric Mart here in Atlanta. I’m not sure of the content but it’s very similar to some rayon ponte I’ve used in the past. I grabbed 1.5 yards of each color because the pattern calls for about 2 yards of fabric and doesn’t give a break down for colorblock because that’s not a view. I could have done one yard of each but I was unsure bout the colorblocking when I bought the fabric so I got a little extra. That turned out for the best because I just enough left over to make Miss Socialites.

Modifications:

The only change I made was omitting the elastic at the hem. I was going back and forth about it on my IG stories and Monarch Trinkets offered the great suggestion to do a elastic drawstring instead. That way I could wear it gathered or straight.

Summary:

Pattern:  Sewing Machina Oskar

Pattern Description: oversized pullover with dividing seams at the front and slveeves and either half zip or

round neck. It has elasticated cuffs and hem. The pullover comes in two different lengths

Sizing: AB -KL, up to a 50” bust (I cut a IJ)

Does it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope? Yes, mostly

Were the instructions easy to follow: Yes

Would I recommend it to others? Definitely